Into July with our food crops

Some of our food gardens are doing ok, as we enter 2009's seventh month. It's exciting and satisfying to see the green driving ever upwards. Small horizons lift up about our legs, and higher.

Most visibly, the snowpeas are burgeoning:

That's a raised bed, blocked out by leftover wood. On the left you can see one of our tomato experiments, growing in a heat-holding old tire.

Here's the first snowpea pod of the year, held by mistress of planting Ceredwyn:

That's actually the first fruit (literally) of our experiment in organic gardening. It's quietly dizzying to realize that. And it tasted fabulous, moist green and crunchy, richly textured, somehow layered even in its thinness.

Meanwhile, our potatoes seem to be flourishing. Here is one row out of eight:

There are rows on either side of this. That's the goat and chicken enclosure behind it.

I have high hopes for the spuds. This is serious food for our family. Not only will everyone eat potatoes, but they remind me of my Russian ancestry.

And yet they fill me with anxiety. I can't see the tubers thickening under the soil. Moreover, two weeks of nonstop rain and drizzle make me fear for rot and blight.